From Skepticism to Success: Insights Into Biosimilar Market Acceptance

Ivo Abraham, PhD, RN, director of the Center for Health Outcomes and PharmacoEconomic Research at the University of Arizona Cancer Center, recalls when he first began biosimilar research in the US in an interview with The Center for Biosimilars^®.

Abraham emphasizes the current challenges that prevent greater biosimilar uptake and discusses techniques manufacturers can use to initiate more affordable drugs. He also mentions the doubts many expressed in the early years of biosimilar development.

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Transcript

What are some of the challenges that biosimilar companies face when gaining market acceptance in the US? How have they been addressed?

We're going see more developments in terms of how biosimilars will be on the market. The detailing approach has not worked. The early days of biosimilars in the US, going from place to place trying to sell your biosimilar, that is too expensive; you cannot afford that.

There are some very interesting developments. For example, Cordavis, which is under CVS and a biosimilar company that they are aligned with. If you look at the Marc Cuban Cost Plus Drug pharmacy, they have certain agreements. Manufacturers of biosimilars need to continue getting volume contracts to stay active on the market.

To be honest, Gary [Lyman, MD, MPH, oncologist, hematologist, and public health researcher] and I took a big gamble in 2007; we had been doing work in biologics and growth factors internationally since 1998. The people that we've worked with at J&J [Johnson & Johnson], Roche, Amgen, and so on were then being recruited by the biosimilar manufacturers. Then they literally called us up and said, "Can you help us out?” I remember Gary and I were talking, thinking, this could be big.

I also know that some people said, "They must not be doing well since they're doing generics now." For us, it's really been the goal from the beginning to increase access, then we started formulating that more recently into equity, and that is what generics, biosimilars, and bioparallels are.